Graduate Student, Institute of Islamic Studies
Harvard University, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
University of Michigan, Comparative Literature
Ph. D candidate
Thesis Title: Islamic Thought and Revivalism in the Russian Empire: an Intellectual Biography of Abu Nasr Qursawi (1776-1812)
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Robert Wisnovsky
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About
My research focuses on Islamic intellectual history in the 18th and early 19th centuries. My interest in this particular era stems from an interest in the transition from the post-classical to the modern period in the Islamic world, a process which began during this period. This transition forms crux of the analysis contained in my dissertation, which looks at a particular instance of the modern transformation of Islamic tradition among the Muslim communities of Russia and Central Asia.
Through this research I have become interested in the interaction between Islamic society and European state structures and the nature of modernity and modern society, as well as theoretical questions of ideational change and tradition as a discursive paradigm.
